Christmas Ever After

She shook her head and then moaned as she retched again. “Go away. Please go away. Just leave me.”

He’d never seen a more pitiful sight in his life.

It didn’t take a genius to guess how much she hated being ill in front of him.

But what alternative was there? He couldn’t leave her on her own in this state.

He rubbed her back, held her, and then when it finally seemed there was nothing left in her stomach, he stood up and left the bathroom long enough to fetch the water from the bedside table.

In those few seconds she had eased herself back against the tiled wall of the bathroom. Now she sat, eyes closed, knees bent, her silver hair flowing over her bloodstained silver dress.

Alec wetted a washcloth and crouched down next to her.

“Here.” He handed her the water and put the cool cloth against her forehead.

She sipped slowly and then lifted her hand and took the cloth from him.

“Stop being nice. I hate you and it’s hard to remember I hate you when you’re nice.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep reminding you. You need to go back to bed. You’ll feel better.” He rose to his feet and held out his hand but she ignored it.

“I can manage.” She straightened those long legs and staggered unsteadily to her feet, like a newborn foal trying to work out how to stand. “I bet this is the best date you’ve had in a long time. Taking care of a semiconscious, vomiting woman must be right at the top of your list of favorite ways to spend a Friday night.” Despite her light tone, she kept her head dipped and Alec slid his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him.

“I know you don’t want to go to hospital, but I’m going to call a friend of mine. He’s a doctor. He works in the emergency department near here.”

“I don’t need a doctor.”

“That’s the choice, Sky. Either you see my friend, or I take you to hospital.”

“Bully.”

Alec looked at her, now dressed only in the tight silver dress. Her feet were bare, her hair loose around her shoulders.

With a bruise already turning all colors of the rainbow and her hair streaked with dried blood, she shouldn’t have looked good but she did.

She intercepted his gaze. “Bet I don’t look like a fairy princess now, hey, Shipwreck Hunter?”

“You look like one of the seven dwarfs.”

A tiny spark lit her eyes. “Which one?”

“The really ugly one.”

She gave a weak laugh. “Can I take a shower before I go back to my hotel? I don’t want to draw attention to myself.”

He doubted it was possible for Sky to go anywhere without drawing attention. Even bruised, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And that, he reminded himself, was another reason he was never going to lay a finger on her. In his experience very beautiful women were hard work. “You’re not going anywhere. And you’re not in a state to take a shower. You might pass out.”

“I won’t, but if you don’t hear me singing you can come in and rescue me.”

She’d be naked and wet.

He’d probably drown. “Sky—”

“I’ve already seen you naked. Nice body by the way.” She managed a smile. “Not bad for a puny academic. I guess that comes from wrestling alligators or whatever it is you do to impress your fan club of adoring women. Call me fussy, but I hate having blood in my hair. We both know you and I have nothing in common and anyway, you loathe me so we’re perfectly safe even if you do have to barge in and rescue me.”

He’d assumed their encounter earlier had confirmed that certain parts of him didn’t loathe her.

“Fine. Take a shower. I’ll be outside.” Leaving the door open, he removed himself from the bathroom, trying not to think of her naked and wet.

He pulled on jeans and a shirt and called his friend.

He’d always intended to make the call, just not under these circumstances.

As he put his phone down, he heard Skylar’s voice.

“Alec?” Her words were muffled. “I’m stuck.”

Swearing under his breath, he walked back into the bathroom and found her with her arms up, the dress covering her head and leaving the whole of her lower body exposed apart from a thin wisp of silver silk that covered the most vulnerable part of her.

Alec averted his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to take my dress off like you told me to.” She wriggled, her hips moving. “My arms are trapped and I can’t see what I’m doing. I’m feeling dizzy and I don’t want to throw up in my dress. It’s taken enough punishment.”

“Stand still.” Teeth clenched, he reached for the dress, the movement bringing him into contact with warm, bare skin. She smelled like roses and summer rain. “Doesn’t this thing have a zip?”

“No, it’s stretchy. It pulls on and off.”

He felt as if he was being boiled alive. “You should have pulled it down, not up.”

“I know that now, but it’s the first time I’ve worn it and I didn’t have a head injury when I tried it on.”

The situation would have been comical if he hadn’t been so tense.

Alec took hold of the dress, tugged gently and the fabric slid over her head. Which would have been a cause for celebration, except that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

He caught a full on eyeful of lush, creamy breasts tipped with pink and then she grabbed a towel and covered herself.

“That makes us equal.”

He backed off, searing his skin on the heated towel rail. “My friend is on the way over here now. As luck would have it, he just finished a shift.” And the sooner he arrived the better. He didn’t want to be alone with Skylar a moment longer than he had to be. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

He walked toward the door, keeping his back to her.

“Good. That’s thoughtful of you.” The shower hissed and then she cried out. “Ow! Crap, that hurts. How do you turn this thing off? Alec, you have to help me. I’m drowning.”

Wondering what the hell he’d done to deserve this sort of punishment, Alec stopped in the doorway and turned.

She was naked in the shower, her hands over her head to protect it. “Alec?”